AGE OF AUTISM

WHY WE FIGHT

By J.B. Handley

Like 140 other families, my wife and I hosted a recent screening of Autism Yesterday. If you haven’t seen the film yet, I hope you take the time to take a look. At 26 minutes long, it’s a quick viewing, and I think for newly diagnosed families it can make a real difference (it’s now available at amazon.com HERE).

At our screening, we were blessed to have Jenny McCarthy, four of the families from the film, and, most importantly, two of the recovered children who had been featured in the movie. For the 250 attendees of our screening, seeing these beautiful, completely recovered children on stage was a memorable, powerful, and for some, life altering experience.

We have received so many beautiful emails from parents who saw the film. I thought I would share this one below, which was particularly moving:

IS AUTISM PREVALENCE RISING? DEPENDS WHO YOU ASK.

By J.B. Handley

I was struck by a couple of comments Harvey Karp, ostensibly representing the mainstream medical establishment, made on Larry King Live earlier this month.

First:

LARRY KING: What puzzles you the most, Dr. Karp? Is it a disease to you?

HARVEY KARP: Why it's going up. It's something that is terribly affecting families. As I said, there are multiple causes. We look at immunizations as being temporally related. But there's pesticides, fire retardants, other chemicals that kids have never been exposed to before. We need to do the research…

REVIEWS OF AUTISM YESTERDAY SCREENINGS

Please let the world know about the Autism Yesterday movie screening you hosted or attended in our comments section.  Thank you.

WATCH THE "AUTISM YESTERDAY" TRAILER

This is the trailer for the movie Autism Yesterday. You can purchase a copy of the DVD at Amazon.

"AUTISM YESTERDAY" - A TRIBUTE TO TIRELESS PARENTING

Editor’s Note: This is a repeat post of David Kirby’s review of the film Autism Yesterday, premiering tonight in more than 140 venues around the world. If you aren’t headed to a screening, the film is now available at Amazon..

By David Kirby

At a time when Big Medicine, Big Government and Big Media are trying hard to make the vaccine-autism debate go away, along comes a quiet little film like “Autism Yesterday” to throw a wrench in the establishment’s best laid plans to stifle the pesky vaccine chatter once and for all.

Anyone out there still declaring that this debate is over, that medical science has fully exonerated mercury and vaccines, and that thousands of parents who insist otherwise don’t know what they are talking about, really should watch THIS film before embarrassing themselves further.

FOOLS RUSH IN

By J.B. Handley

You know the response is coming.

For anyone watching the news for the last two months, the “other side” (aka, The Vaccine Lobby) has been getting annihilated in the press, online, in the coffee shops, schools, watercoolers, and, of course, on Larry King Live.

There’s too much power, profits, and prestige at stake for the other side not to fight back, at least a little.

With that as backdrop I was delighted to get an email from a friend with a link to a new, curious website called Voices4Vaccines. 

The website is under construction, but the home page opens with this noble goal:

“Voices for Vaccines has only one goal to provide science-based, accessible, and clear information about the benefits and risks of vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases. Our leadership consists of scientists and concerned individuals who are totally committed to supporting continued efforts to eradicate vaccine-preventable diseases.”

This new organization also makes a veiled reference to you-know-who and our movement in general:

“But we also know that the loud voices and famous faces are not necessarily giving the best information.”

THE CHINA SOLUTION

By J.B. Handley

“China executed the former head of its food and drug watchdog this morning for approving untested medicine in exchange for cash, the strongest signal yet from Beijing that it is serious about tackling its product safety crisis.”

OK, calm down. I’m not recommending anyone at the Vaccine Lobby of Pharma, CDC, FDA, AAP, or Autism Speaks be executed (jail time is punishment enough for me).

HARVEY KARP: DVD SALESMAN

By J.B. Handley

I struggled with whether or not to write this piece because Harvey Karp-as a completely arrogant asshole with little grasp of the facts- is such a wonderfully appropriate spokesperson for the AAP. I have found that almost every parent I’ve asked who saw him on Larry King Live this week felt he did the other side a profound disservice.

That being said, Mr. Karp’s background to be a “spokesperson” for the AAP deserves some scrutiny -- and is quite murky, much like the AAP’s position on our vaccine schedule and autism in general.

AN ALL TIME ASS-WHOOPING

By J.B. Handley

Did we all just watch that?

Jesus Christ. Jenny McCarthy, David Kirby, and Jay Gordon just put a whoop on the CDC and AAP so big, they may never recover.

We’re moving at light speed now, and it couldn’t happen soon enough. I just checked the poll at Larry King’s website, and 85% of respondents believe vaccines can cause autism.

If you think pediatricians were hating life last week, wait until their patients start showing up today.

FOOKED

By J.B. Handley

Don’t let the New York Times hit-and-run piece last Friday on parents who don’t vaccinate fool you. Our public health establishment, the AAP, and pediatricians in general are utterly and completely…fooked (hey, this is a family blog!).

The Poling case has opened a pandora’s box so complex and nasty that our health authorities have no idea what to do.

Before the Poling case became worldwide news, and soon after David Kirby’s piece ran in the Huffington Post that started this whole wonderful cluster-fook, the Vaccine Lobby went into red-alert mode. Paul Offit himself was calling most of the major reporters in the country, trying to explain to them why the Poling decision meant nothing and was certainly not newsworthy. Unfortunately for Offit, the court decision was already on the web for reporters to read, and soon after the media learned that Hannah’s Dad was a mainstream neurologist.

ABOUT.COM:AUTISM RESPONDS TO J.B. HANDLEY

We thought you'd like to drop in on this conversation between Generation Rescue Co-Founder and Age of Autism's Editor at Large J.B. Handley and Lisa Jo Rudy, Autism Guide on About.com.

Vaccines and Autism: My Response to J.B. Handley of Generation Rescue

"I was honored to receive a comment on yesterday's blog from J.B. Handley, co-founder of Generation Rescue -- the organization most active in the fight to "green" vaccines (by which I understand "make vaccines safer"). I'd like to respond to Mr. Handley, so am citing his comment in full HERE. 

Please come back to comment on Age of Autism.

About.com is part of the New York Times family. From their site:

About.com is the Web's leading provider of practical solutions to everyday problems. Our expert Guides offer advice and tutorials on hundreds of topics, ranging from asthma to action movies, from home repair to home cooking, from gadgets to getaways.

GARDINER HARRIS, VACCINE PATRIOT

By J.B. Handley

“but scaring parents away from life-saving medicines is no way to improve this terrible situation. i have met parents who lost their children to vaccine-preventable diseases, and they are haunted. if you had your way, there would be far more of these haunted souls. i hope to prevent that from happening.”

- Gardiner Harris, NY Times reporter, in an email to me, March 9, 2008

The above quote comes from an exchange of emails that I initiated with Gardiner Harris, a New York Times medical reporter, on the eve of the Poling’s historic press conference.

DOUBLE BIG MAC ATTACK: USS GERBERDING TAKES ON WATER!

By J.B.Handley

I hope CDC employees have life vests underneath their sailor suits because the mighty USS Gerberding is taking on a hell of a lot of water right now.

David Kirby provided a blueprint for battle. Deirdre & Don Imus began running solo bombing missions. Jenny McCarthy dropped an atom bomb, and our favorite war hero just went thermo-nuclear!

ABC NEWS: PLEASE LET ‘EM HAVE IT!

By J.B. Handley

As the email chain below from AOA reader Monica Bice shows, ABC is clueless and trying to defend the indefensible. Their chief medical correspondent blatantly lied to the American people and falsely reassured parents that the rates of autism amongst unvaccinated children has been studied when it has never been studied (except for Generation Rescue’s study!)

We want, and deserve, a retraction. Please email:

Roger Sergel
Managing Editor
Medical Coverage
ABC News
roger.h.sergel@abc.com

David Westin
President
ABC News
This email address is not working - if anyone has a working address please email leave us a comment!  Maybe David's mailbox is full???
David.westin@abc.com

Audrey Grayson
ABC News Medical Unit
(781) 455-6020
audrey.grayson@abc.com
 
________________________________________

CASTLE OF SAND ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER AUTISM

By J.B. Handley

We’re proud to be re-running our ad again today in USA Today asking health authorities to   “Green Our Vaccines.”

The message that our children are getting way too many vaccines way too early, that the vaccines are toxic, and that thousands of parents are reporting a reaction to the vaccines that results in autism for their children has resonated with many.

Our children are being pushed into the River Autism by a bloated vaccine schedule managed by a conflict-laden “Vaccine Lobby.” Thousands of parents and doctors are pulling as many of these children out of the river through biomedical intervention and trying to keep more children from being pushed in through education, awareness campaigns, lawsuits, and civil disobedience.

Meanwhile, the Vaccine Lobby (comprised of the CDC, AAP, vaccine manufacturers, and Autism Speaks) has been building a castle on the banks of the River Autism. They are doing their best to pretend they don’t see the children being pushed in by denying the epidemic, and they certainly never acknowledge the ones we are pulling out through recovery.
Unfortunately for the Vaccine Lobby, the River Autism is swollen and rising and the castle they have built is made of sand–-it’s starting to crumble.

BERNIE VS. BRYNA: THE TROUBLE WITH AUTISM SPEAKS VERSION 2.0

By J.B. Handley

In March of 2007 I wrote an essay titled “Bernie Versus Bryna, the Trouble with Autism Speaks” that was widely circulated on the web (full text at the end of this post). At the end of the letter, I encouraged parents to write Autism Speaks directly to express their frustration with the organization’s direction.

As of today, I’m certain that Autism Speaks heard from many members of our community, often quite loudly.

The recent emails that I have featured in my columns have created a great situation where I now get more and more emails from all kinds of people that are of interest to our community.

I found this most recent chain that a reader forwarded to me to be particular interesting.

After reading my original post on “Bernie versus Bryna,” a Mom named Lynne sent an email to Suzanne Wright, Co-Founder of Autism Speaks:

AAP WAGS THE DOG: FIND US SOME SICK KIDS PRONTO!

Internal American Academy of Pediatricians email reveals panic and new low in “media planning.” (Full email at end of post.)

By J.B. Handley

Dear Ms. Martin:

I understand you are the Director of Media Relations for the American Academy of Pediatrics. I read your email of February 13th to medical practitioners (that I have included below in its entirety) describing a nationwide search for parents that, in your words, fit one of two profiles. First:

“Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders who support immunization and who do not believe there is any link between their child’s vaccines and his or her autism.”

Second:

“Parents of children who suffered a vaccine-preventable illness. This could be a parent who declined immunization, whose child became ill before a vaccine was available, or whose child was ineligible for immunization.”

Apparently, you are trying to establish connections with these families because:

“The anti-vaccine groups often have emotional family stories on their side. The ability to offer a reporter an interview with a similarly compelling parent who is sympathetic to the AAP’s goals is a powerful tool for our media relations program.”

"ALL HANDS ON DECK!" CDC BRACES FOR LARRY KING LIVE

By J.B. Handley

Can it get any sillier? First, the AAP tries to get ABC to pull a fictional episode of Eli Stone off the air because the show addresses the vaccine-autism controversy.

Now, the CDC issues a “warning” that Larry King Live will be airing a show on autism tomorrow night (February 14th) that may not align with the CDC’s wildly biased, ill-informed, and self-protectionist point of view on autism.

The email, circulated to health care professionals far and wide, states:

“We have been informed that the Larry King Live show will be about on autism on Tuesday, February 12 [Note: date is wrong, actually airing on 2/14]. The panelists for the show will include Jenny McCarthy, Holly Robinson, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel (author of the introduction to Jenny McCarthy's book) and others [Note: List of panelists is wrong, will actually be Robinson, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, Doug Flutie, and Jason McElwain.]

Recently, we distributed a timeline of key events related to thimerosal and vaccines. We are sending that to you again.

NATIONAL IMMUNIZATION PROGRAM OUT OF CONTROL

Road to Nowhere: The National Immunization Program is out of control: who will restore sanity?

By J.B. Handley

In A User-Friendly Vaccine Schedule, perhaps the most enlightened work ever written by a doctor regarding immunizations, Dr. Donald Miller, a professor at The University of Washington writes:

“The schedule states, "Your child can safely receive all vaccines recommended for a particular age during one visit." Public health officials, however, have not proven that it is indeed safe to inject this many vaccines into infants. What's more, they cannot explain why, concurrent with an increasing number of vaccinations, there has been an explosion of neurologic and immune system disorders in our nation’s children.”

We try to make similar points with a full page ad in USA Today that asks what we consider to be many reasonable questions like, “Given the unabated rise of autism to epidemic levels, isn’t it time for the scientific community to seriously consider the anecdotal evidence of so many parents?”

Isn’t it?

WHILE MINSHEW SHRIEKS, AUTISM SQUEAKS

By J.B. Handley

Nancy Minshew, M.D. sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of, you guessed it, Autism Speaks.

Autism Speaks drives me nuts. On the one hand, they often represent themselves as speaking for our community. On the other hand, no one at Autism Speaks ever seems to speak up for anything that might help our kids today.

Let’s take a pause and look back at Autism Speaks’ moment of shining glory: the passage of the Combating Autism Act (which actually took Don and Deirdre Imus to push through). Bob Wright went down to Washington and addressed the Senate of the United Sates and here, from an Autism Speaks press release, is what he said:

“The public health crisis posed by autism requires an extraordinary response. With every new child diagnosed with autism costing an estimated $3 million over his or her lifetime, we cannot afford to rely on standard, ‘business as usual' practices,” stated Wright in his testimony. “The autism crisis demands a focused, coordinated, and accountable response by our public health agencies, similar to the federal response to the AIDS crisis in the 1990s, with line-item appropriations for autism intervention, surveillance and research tied to a strategic plan.”

A crisis? Similar to the response for AIDS? Wasn’t/Isn’t AIDS an epidemic?

DR. NANCY MINSHEW & ME: WHO'S CRAZY?

By J.B. Handley

Dear Dr. Minshew,

It’s my understanding that you are a child neurologist and that you have been a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine for the past 22 years, and that today you run one of the NIH’s nine Centers for Excellence of Autism.

I took the time to read this 100 page presentation you gave on autism, which helped me understand your perspective on my son and what ails him. To summarize from your bio on the ASA’s website, you have developed a “model of autism as a disorder of brain connectivity and constrained information processing accounting for many of the manifestations of this disorder.”

The reason for my email today, which I’m also posting on a public blog I write for, isn’t really about my son, it’s about me. You see, after reading many of the things you have written and said, I find myself in a real funk, a state of angst and confusion.

OREGONIAN OPINION: PEDS AGAINST FREE SPEECH?

Our own JB Handley is featured in THIS article from Oregon Live which begins: "When the American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP) learned that the first episode of a new television series on ABC would feature an autistic child harmed by vaccines, it cried "irresponsible" and demanded that the show be canceled. In turn, activists like Portland's J.B. Handley, founder of Generation Rescue, which supports parents of autistic children, cried: "Censorship."

The article ends with:

The AAP and the CDC would rather the ABC program not air so that parents do not even learn about the vaccine controversy. Most parents are unlikely to use medical information from a fictional television program as the only basis to make health decisions for themselves or their children. But such a program can raise real life issues that trigger personal research so that when medical treatments are considered there is true informed consent. What is the AAP so afraid of?

The middle is pretty good too. Check it out. Thank you Sandra Duffy.

CONCERN, ANXIETY, AND WORRY: GETTING PLAYED BY THE CDC (AND OTHERS)

By J.B. Handley

“The belief that you can inform and warn people, and get them to take appropriate actions or precautions with respect to a health threat or risk without actually making them anxious or concerned. This is not possible…This is like breaking up with your boyfriend without hurting his feelings. It can’t be done.”

- Glen Nowak, Director of Communications, Centers for Disease Control, Presentation at the 2004 Vaccine Summit

Man, did I get played by the CDC. It was the winter of 2003. You couldn’t turn on the T.V. without reading about another child dying from the flu: it’s a particularly bad strain, children are at high risk, flu shot supply is strained, get your child vaccinated while you still can!

PEDIATRICIANS DEMAND CENSORSHIP FROM ABC

Managing Editor's Note: Last week we told you about a program from ABC called, "Eli Stone" in which the character questions pharmaceutical companies and vaccine safety. The American Academy of Pediatrics has sent a letter to ABC demanding that they censor this program. We got a copy of the letter (see below in red) and are sharing it you, our readers.  JB Handley, Co-founder of Generation Rescue and the driving force behind Age of Autism since it's inception as Rescue Post last Spring, puts his unique voice into the story below.   

I believe that pediatricians are hearing from more and more parents that there is an unease, a mistrust regarding vaccination safety.  Instead of allaying our fears via true studies on the safety of dozens of vaccines for infants and toddlers, the American Academy of Pediatricians wants to censor a TV program to shut down the story.

I also want to point out the I have had several wonderful pediatricians over the years - all of whom were genuinely interested in the health of my three girls. And I know more parents than I can count who have "medical vaccine exemption" written in their kids' charts by their doctor.  Individually they respect a parent's wishes. Here's the story.

By J.B. Handley

American Academy of Pediatrics, we’ve had it with you. Generation Rescue, an international autism organization, is officially declaring war on you for inexplicable complacency, complicity, and bureaucratic arrogance.

Most parents and autism organizations are extremely frustrated with the Centers for Disease Control, or CDC. They have been the target of attack ads, parent protests, and an entire website chronicling their misdeeds. Yet, at least with the CDC, we all see the conflict clearly: their #1 job, their raison d’être, is to administer vaccines.

With the AAP, the crime against our kids is actually more insidious, and in many ways more morally reprehensible. You are the people who are supposed to have our kid’s backs. And you don’t, not remotely.

Pouring salt in a growing wound is an absurd letter the AAP has written to the ABC television network protesting an upcoming TV show which they will be releasing to the press tomorrow, a complete copy of which you can read down below.

The letter, which I encourage you to forward to as many people and reporters as possible, takes the wildly predictable path of trying to guilt ABC into pulling a fictional TV show that lends credibility to the autism-vaccine link. The AAP writes:

“ABC will bear responsibility for the needless suffering and potential deaths of children from parents' decisions not to immunize based on the content of the episode.”

GRINKER'S STINKER: HIS WIFE RUNS THE IACC

By J.B. Handley

Who is Joyce Chung, MD?

According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, she’s the new “Autism Coordinator” and the Executive Secretary of the IACC. Let’s take a quick step back: when you read the acronym “IACC”, if you are anything like me, you wonder, “what the hell is that?”

NEW FOIA EMAILS SHOW: GRINKER SPEAKS AND THE CDC LISTENS

Managing Editor's Note: Make sure you scroll down to click open the PDF of the emails JB is referencing, complete with blacked out sentences.

By J.B. Handley

Meet Roy.

Roy Richard Grinker is Professor of Anthropology, Human Sciences and International Affairs at the George Washington University. It’s worth noting that his Dad and Grandfather are somewhat famous psychiatrists. He wrote a book about autism called Unstrange Minds. Two things are interesting:

1. The book was written with the help of a $120,000 grant from Autism Speaks. From his own website: “In 2005, he received a grant of $120,000 from the National Alliance for Autism Research/Autism Speaks, to conduct the first ever prevalence study of autism in Korea.”

WHO STOLE BOB WRIGHT'S SPINE?

By J.B. Handley

I haven’t seen Bob Wright speak in public in some time. Perhaps he can’t get out of bed what with his missing spine and all…I don’t know.

When I first heard the CEO of NBC had an autistic grandson and was launching a new organization I thought, “Finally, someone with the courage, intellect, and independence to do the right thing!”

TRUMP SPEAKS: "I THINK IT'S THE VACCINATIONS"

By J.B. Handley

What if you were a large national autism charity and you held a fundraiser at a billionaire’s house and the billionaire told reporters he thought autism was caused by vaccines? What if your large national autism charity was wildly dismissive of vaccines as a cause for autism, had scientists on staff who had worked to produce faulty research exonerating vaccines alongside the CDC, and had no research dollars allocated to exploring the vaccine-autism relationship?

Well, then you would be Autism Speaks holding a fundraiser at Donald Trump’s Palm Beach mansion. As THIS article from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:

“At a news conference Thursday in a gold-trimmed Mar-A-Lago ballroom, Trump's wife, Melania, noted her 22-month-old son, Baron, and said: "I cannot imagine what the mothers [with autistic children] and mothers all around the world go through. ... Let's get rid of autism."

AUTISM SPEAKS' TAIWAN PROBLEM

By J.B. Handley

As a child living in Tokyo, I remember my fascination in seeing a copy of a black market World Book Encyclopedia my Dad bought in Beijing, with the pages where Taiwan should have been left completely blank. Just white paper in the middle of the book, as if the country did not even exist.

Go to the website of Autism Speaks, and you encounter a similar phenomenon.

Is Autism an Infection?

By J.B. Handley

During Jenny McCarthy’s historic interview with Larry King, she said something that has stayed with me ever since. Here’s the excerpt:

LARRY KING: What is autism?.

JENNY MCCARTHY: Wow! Well, it differs for a lot of people. But -- or opinions. But I believe that's -- it's an infection and/or toxins and/or funguses on top of vaccines that push children into this neurological downslide which we call autism.

Can someone rewind that? Autism is an infection? What the hell does that mean? Even for a parent like me, deeply steeped in the biomedical approach to autism recovery, this was a paradigm-shifting comment.

The CDC’s Caldera

By J.B. Handley

Yellowstone National Park’s beauty has been enjoyed by millions. Up until the 1960s, scientists knew the park’s hot springs, geysers, mud pots, and frequent earthquakes were all signs of volcanic activity. However, it wasn’t until a single government scientist took a step back to re-think the park that an extraordinary discovery was made: most of Yellowstone was one massive volcano -- a conical, inverted “super volcano” known as a caldera.

Some context: Mount St. Helens’ crater-top is about 2 square miles. Yellowstone’s caldera? 1,500 square miles. Yellowstone’s most recent eruption, roughly a half million years ago, was about 8,000 times as powerful as the Mount St. Helens’ eruption of 1980. When it erupts again (not “if”, but “when”), you can count on a good part of the West and Midwest being wiped out.

I think of the CDC scientists looking at the connection between vaccines and autism as similar to the early Yellowstone scientists documenting each hot spring and earthquake, while never realizing they were standing on a single, massive Caldera.

Jenny McCarthy Missile Sinks USS Gerberding

By J.B. Handley

I’m not sure why CDC employees wear sailor suits, but after Jenny McCarthy’s two week talk show romp, they’ll be bailing water out of battleship CDC for months to come.

On Larry King Live, Jenny ripped the hull right off the frame, going as far as to say there’s no way in hell she would vaccinate another child if she had one.

America, Meet Our Unvaccinated Kids, Version 2.0

By J.B. Handley

Back in June, we released what we felt was an astonishing data set for the first ever study comparing the rates of ADHD, autism, and asthma between vaccinated children and unvaccinated children. Our conclusion was weighty:

"We surveyed over 9,000 boys in California and Oregon and found that vaccinated boys had a 155% greater chance of having a neurological disorder like ADHD or autism than unvaccinated boys."

And the mainstream media wouldn't touch it.

Preventing Autism: An Emerging Hypothesis

By J.B. Handley

My second child’s autism diagnosis put the plans my wife and I had for at least three kids on potentially permanent hold. Three years later, we are the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl, and we feel well-armed with the wisdom of other parents and many doctors to prevent her from the same fate her brother experienced.

What? We’re planning to prevent her from developing autism? The notion of being able to prevent autism is a highly controversial idea, and one sure to make many sentences in this entry blogger-fodder. So be it.

Spontaneous Horsepucky

By J.B. Handley

Have you ever tried to talk to someone involved with autism from the “other” side about recovered children?

Typically, the conversation goes something like this:

Us: So you think autism is a genetic condition and biomedical intervention is quackery?

Them: Yes, exactly.

Us: But what about the children who are recovered, how do you explain them?